It is well recognized that there are bulky items, such as motorcycles, possibly even small cars, that are within the weight limits of a personal aircraft, in particular, and that could fit inside the fuselage of the aircraft, but which cannot be loaded into the aircraft through the conventional aircraft doors. The instant invention relates to a design for an aircraft, in particular a personal aircraft, that efficiently and cost effectively addresses this problem.
The instant design provides for a rear door into a fuselage of an aircraft for loading bulky items. (Other more conventional side doors, of course, may also be provided.) A ramp from the ground to the rear opening, as part of the aircraft or as part of ground equipment, would enhance convenience. Removable seats might be provided for versatility, to give the option of carrying cargo or people, much in the order of an automobile station wagon, van or utility vehicle.
Rear fuselage doors cannot be provided on conventional personal aircraft because they would interfere with the traditional craft empennage. Conventional personal aircraft all utilize horizontal and vertical control surfaces on the tail, together called the “empennage”1, which effectively prevent placing a door there. Other designers have recognized this problem and offered solutions which are quite different from the instant invention. Read (2,410,234), for example, suggests removing the empennage from the fuselage and attaching it to the wing(s) utilizing booms. The instant design places the horizontal (pitch) control surfaces on the nose of the aircraft and the vertical (yaw) control surfaces on the wing tips. This is a well-known arrangement, commonly known as a “canard”, which has been extensively used by the noted designer Burt Rutan. 1Empennage is a French word meaning “tail feathers”. Empennage referred originally to the feathers (pennage) affixed to the end (em) of an arrow. Webster says “empennage” means “the tail assembly of an airplane”. We use the word to cover a rear horizontal lifting surface of an airplane, attached to either fuselage or “booms”. The instant inventive aircraft has no empennage at all of any kind just a preferably cone-shaped door where the empennage would be.
The instant invention is novel (unique) in that it is the first to combine a rear door with the canard configuration.
The instant invention, in contrast to convention, discloses a two-surface canard design for aircraft which eliminates the conventional aircraft empennage, enabling the placement of a large rear fuselage door. The design also avoids adding the weight, complexity and expense of a tail empennage having a horizontal lifting surface carried between boom structures.
In particular, the canard design of the instant invention, by providing two and only two horizontal lifting surfaces, the smaller in front of the larger, avoids the expense and weight of providing a third horizontal lifting surface and/or the expense and weight of a boom-supported horizontal lifting surface associated with the empennage.
The horizontal lifting surfaces of the instant invention, together with the engine(s) or means for propulsion, can be located with respect to the fuselage and weight can be managed to satisfy aerodynamic concerns for stability and efficiency. Thus, the instant invention discloses an efficient, cost effective design for an aircraft, in particular a personal aircraft, to permit the loading of bulky items, such as a motorcycle, while minimizing expense, complexity and weight.